Please contribute these to the KiCad library

egladman / keebs.pretty

KiCAD footprint library for hybrid MX/Alps footprints and microcontrollers

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Please contribute these to the KiCad library #7

Open WardBenjamin opened 4 years ago

WardBenjamin commented 4 years ago

Having the MX/Alps switches present in the KiCad standard library would make project setup easier and make it so that there is one single source of truth for the footprint across the community. Plain MX switches and Matias switches have already been contributed.

You can open a pull request for the Button_Switch_Keyboard library at the official repository here: https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-footprints.

I would also be happy to do this if necessary.

egladman commented 4 years ago

Cool idea. I hadn't considered this. I'll look into it this weekend.

egladman commented 4 years ago

I've gone ahead and drafted a TODO. Not sure when I'll get to this.

For reference here's the kicad switch library: Button_Switch_Keyboard.pretty

What needs to be done:

[ ] Rename keebs.pretty footprints to compliment existing KiCad switch footprints
- Example: Mx_Alps_100.kicad_mod to SW_Cherry_MX_Matias_Hybrid_1.00u_PCB.kicad_mod
[ ] Verify Pad Numbers are ordered correctly compared to existing KiCad switch footprints
[ ] Create branch with changes listed above
[ ] Submit PR to https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-footprints

WardBenjamin commented 4 years ago

I'm going to go ahead and link this to https://github.com/ai03-2725/MX_Alps_Hybrid/pull/15 since a similar effort is going on there. In that PR we've put together a similar set of hybrid switches that use two distinct holes for pin 1 since it allows for more accurate and consistent mounting while still keeping the hybrid pinout.

It could be good to have both options in the standard library. I'd be happy to help out with this.

egladman commented 4 years ago

That's fine, I'm all for more options. That's the beauty of open software.

The oval pads were a design decision I made early on. Since most switches are packaged in large bags, pins inevitably get bent. Instead of meticulously straightening pins I opted for the current design. Less work on my end. I've yet to run into any issues with the looser tolerances since I either use PCB mounted switches or a plate. To each their own.

If both footprint libraries are to make into the standard library it makes since to name them something like: SW_Cherry_MX_Matias_Hybrid_Oval_1.00u_PCB.kicad_mod. I know some pcb manufactures can't do oval pads, but I've yet to encounter issues at my fab shops.

egladman commented 4 years ago

Had some spare time this morning. So i knocked it out. I made a few tweaks to the footprints to comply with footprint conventions. See branch: std-lib-prep

perigoso commented 4 years ago

I'm starting an effort to merge the library @WardBenjamin mentioned to the official libraries ai03-2725/MX_Alps_Hybrid#11, just commenting to avoid duplicate work.